Rare books from Bruce Marshall Rare Books

A Highly Impressive Illuminated manuscript, Brilliant Watercolours and Gouache on Mulberry paper comprising 204 panels, laid onto heavier paper and bound concertina style, depicting an elaborate Daoist religious ceremony, including a procession of musicians, banner bearers, dignitaries, deities and mythical creatures, and Kaigen-kuyo or the ritual of the eye-opening ceremony, the Five Thunder Gods are invoked to dispel demons (the blue figures with flaming red hair), the twelve animals of the zodiac are present representing the blending of religious and secular Chinese beliefs, as well as drawing attention to the importance of the date of the ceremony (the second day of the second division of the second month of winter, in the eleventh year of the reign of Tongzhi, a ren shen year).
Titled and dated on opening leaves, approximately 30metres (100ft) long, 27cm (10.5ins) high, blue calf covers, silk floral fitted case.
Account of a Daoist religious ceremony, Chongfu Altar, Shanxi Province, Northern… Read More

Large Vellum Document [580 x 410mm], Westminster, Aug 11th, 1657.
Address and Title illuminated in Gold Script with Large Seal of the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
The English ship Resolution, laden with cloth, tin, lead and money bound for Scanderone [the port of Aleppo] was attacked by 7 ships from Tripoli, near Candy and taken in defiance of capitulations. Cromwell demands an inquiry and that these Sea Rovers should be punished.
'As we have now done to the grand signor your lord and master, so doe we also to you complaine of an Act of violence and injustice towards divers Merchants of this Commonwealth interested in an English Ship called the Resolution which being laden with Cloth, Tynn & mony & bound for the Grand Signors owne port of Scanderone in a peaceable course of Trading, was notwithstanding in her way neare Candy assaulted by seven Tripoly men of warre actually engaged in the Grand Signors service, & by them carried to Rhods, where the Captaine Bassa both secured the… Read More

London: John Murray, Richard Bentley and Josiah Fisher, 1829- 1837, 4 vols, 4to, (275 x 200mm), Contemporary red half morocco gilt, with 110 engraved plates of which 72 are hand-coloured, a very nice large uncut copy.
Scarce Complete Copy of the First Edition of this Rare Work on the Natural History of the Arctic.
Sir John Richardson (1787–1865), surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer, went on Sir John Franklin's first two Arctic expeditions as ship's doctor and naturalist, and made observations and collected a large number of plant and animal specimens from the Canadian Arctic.
On his return to England after the second expedition he began to write this four-volume work of natural history, first published between 1829 and 1837. A volume is dedicated to each of the classes of mammal, bird, fish and insect, which are found in the Canadian Arctic. This work is an interesting example of pre-Darwinian natural history, full of detailed descriptions of the appearance, anatomy and behaviour of the… Read More

Nuremberg: Johann Montanus & Ulrich Neuber, 1551.Folio ( 320 x 200mm) , 3 Parts in one volume, Early Citron Morocco Gilt, Gilt Crest of the Duke of Devonshire on Upper and Lower Covers, title printed in red and black, woodcut ornament on title-page, portrait of the author, preface by Philipp Melanchthon, numerous woodcut illustrations throughout concerning geographical, navigational and astronomical subjects, astronomical instruments and Schoner's celebrated celestial and terrestrial globes, with 11 woodcut volvelles and 10 leaves with 34 printed discs for use on the volvelles.
A Splendid complete copy of this extremely scarce work.
The First Edition of Shoner's most important work, his collected Astronomical works published after his death in 1547. This includes the Aequatorium Astronomicum of 1521 the earliest works to contain moveable discs. This original edition, of which there is only one surviving copy, published on his own press at Bamberg, was the inspiration for Peter Apian's extraordinary… Read More

Augsburg: [J. Sittich], January 1514. Quarto (210 x 155mm). Title within four-part woodcut border, 87 woodcuts, 10 of these large including 1 full page lunar figure, numerous initials, all in bright contemporary hand-colour, with working volvelles. Contemporary quarter pigskin over wooden boards.
A rare, richly illustrated calendar from the Augsburg Renaissance.
Printed calendars and almanacs became extremely popular in the fifteenth century and provided ordinary people with the basic knowledge required to plan their daily routines. The market for calendars was first tapped by Gutenburg, who published a calendar which calculated the times of new and full moons and planetary positions, with readings every two to three days. All earlier calendars, however, were superseded by those of Regiomontanus (1436-1476) whose calculations were far more accurate; he recorded several eclipses of the moon and his interest led him to make the important observation that longitude at sea could be determined by… Read More

London, J.Pine, 1739, First Edition, Folio(560 x 390mm), contemporary mottled half calf gilt, spine restored, with engraved title with allegorical historiated border, printed dedication, 2 pp list of subscribers, 23pp text, 5 double-page plates each with 2 engraved maps,double-page map of the British Isles showing the track of the Armada,
10 double-page engraved plates of the sea battles printed in green and blue, all within highly decorative allegorical borders, incorporating medallion portraits, and 2 double-page engraved maps of Devon and Cornwall and the Thames(not in the Berlin Catalogue and present in only a few subscribers copies), all engraved by Pine after Gravelot and Lempriere.
Subscribers Copy of one of the finest naval works ever produced.
After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 Lord Howard of Effingham,
commander of the British Fleet, commisioned Robert Adams to produce a series of charts representing the various phases of the action during the battle.The Dutch artist H.C.Vroom… Read More

Johann Georg Puschner, Nuremberg, 1728. 32 cm Coloured Terrestrial Globe in Original Condition.
Terrestrial Globe made up of two sets of twelve coloured engraved globe gores , 2 engraved polar calottes and 2 coloured engraved title or text cartouches. Assembled on a (probably wooden) hollow sphere (diameter: 32 cm) with brass pole screws suspended in a chiselled meridian ring made of brass and with a smaller brass scale ring for the degrees of longitude. As a standing globe, the ball is inserted into the wooden horizontal equator ring, which stands on four turned feet. The engraved calendar ring is mounted on its octagonal, round surface. The original silver-plated brass compass with a glass cover is embedded in the lower platform plate, which is also turned.
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr's (1677-1750) famous terrestrial globe from 1728, which he printed and published together with the astronomer and publisher Johann Georg Puschner (1680-1749) who constructed the globe,
This a scarce globe and only a few… Read More

London: Printed by T. Bensley and sold by Messr.Cadell and Davies, etc. 1813-17.
First Edition, 3 volumes, Large Folio, half red calf over marbled boards, complete with numerous plates on 111 hand-coloured sheets of antiquities and mosaic pavements, of which 37 are folding or double-page, 3 hand-coloured titles, engraved dedication, 7 part titles with 6 in colour, 4 engraved ll of lists of plates in colour with hand-coloured engraved vignettes, a fine copy of a rare work.A SUPERB COPY OF A VERY SCARCE WORK. One of 200 Sets Only and One of the Most Important Works on Roman Antiquities in Britain.
An extraordinary series of engravings recording Roman mosaic floors and antiquities excavated in Great Britain in the late 18th century.Samuel Lysons was one of the first archaeologists to investigate the Roman sites in Britain, as well as being a leading intellectual of his time and a benefactor of the British Museum, to which he donated many artifacts. Between 1793 and 1796, he undertook extensive… Read More

London: Thomas East, 1582, Small quarto (194 x 137 mm). 170 leaves, woodcut border device surrounding title,early ms on verso, woodcut initials throughout, an early but later calf binding with elaborate gilt drops, central gilt device on both covers, a very attractive binding.First English edition of one of the first works in English on world exploration. Dedicated to Sir Francis Drake.Originally published in Coimbra in 1551, the present text represents one of the most important historical works of the first great age of discovery. Translated by Nicholas Lichefield.Most of the ...Historie... is devoted to the great Portuguese thrust into Asia in the early 16th century, chronicling their epic expansion to India, the East Indies, and China between 1497 and 1525. Castanheda himself spent some two decades in the Portuguese colonies in the East, and so was well equipped to write this account. It is one of the primary sources for the early Portuguese trading empire, a model that the British were beginning… Read More

Second edition, title in red and black, engraved device to title, 1 double page copper plate, numerous text illustrations, [4], b-c4, d2, A-3P4, 3Q2, [1], dedication to King Charles II, old ownership notes to pastedown, lacking front free endpapers, contemporary calf, strapwork with blindstamped floral decorative border, blind stamped monogrammed device "IHS", 4to, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714
"Following Galileo's pioneering investigations of motion and its mathematical analysis, and the important contributions of Descartes and Huygens, the seventeenth century scientific revolution culminated in Newton's massive achievements in gravitational dynamics and astronomy" (PMM).
The Principia Mathematica is Newton's magnum opus, where he collects his discoveries in mechanics and mathematical calculus and where he exposes his theory of motion and gravitation. This work marked a turning point in the history of science and is considered, by many, as the most important scientific work in history. It is… Read More

Dordrecht: by Abraham Blussé and Son, 1771.
2 volumes in one, Folio (524 x 345mm) 2 volumes, folio (524 x 345mm). Hand-coloured engraved frontispiece and 91 fine hand-coloured engraved plates, one double-page, by or after Knorr, B.R. Dietschlin, G.F. Dietsch and others, 4pp. list of subscribers). Contemporary calf-backed speckled boards, title labels on spines.
FIRST EDITION in Dutch, Number 64 of 99 Copies.
One of the finest colour-plate natural history books, illustrating specimens from the leading collections of Nuremberg. The plates depict mainly marine and zoological subjects, but also include a number of fine depictions of minerals. It is often said that the beauty of these illustrations exceeds that of their models.
Georg Wolfgang Knorr (1705-1761), German palaeontologist, painter, engraver and art dealer, engraved portraits, landscapes and animal studies after Dürer.
In the eighteenth century, Nuremberg became the leading city in the production of fine illustrated natural history books. This… Read More

FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece and 25 engraved plates, most by J. Basire after W. Jett and J. Nicholls., title in red and black, woodcut device, contemporary speckled calf, twice ruled in gilt, spine gilt with fleurons, red morocco label, hinges and cornes expertly repaired, last two leaves repaired, folio, London, for J. Janeway, 1734
FIRST EDITION OF THIS FAMOUS COMPILATION, uniting the most notorious names in the early eighteenth-century underworld. It consists of selections from two works, Alexander Smith's History of the Lives of the Most Noted Highway-men and Captain Charles Johnson's own General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. Captain Johnson is attributed with creating the modern conception of pirates. He provided a sweeping account of what came to be called the Golden Age of Piracy. He gave an almost mythical status to the more colourful pirates such as Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach, 'Calico' Jack Rackham, and the female pirates Mary Read and Anne Bonny.… Read More

Christian Egenolff, Frankfurt, 1551. Folio, (330 x 240mm),[18], 352, [1] with over 900 woodcut illustrations. A very attractive binding in contemporary panelled calf, blind tooled borders with arabesque designs, spine gilt in compartments, leather gilt title-pieces.
Adam Lonicer (Lonitzer) (1528-1586) had studied in Marburg and Mainz before becoming professor of mathematics at the Lutheran University of Marburg. It was there that he received his medical degree and he later pursued a medical career as the city physician of Frankfurt. In 1554 (the same year as he received his medical degree), he married Magdalena Egenolph, the daughter of the controversial Frankfurt printer Christian Egenolph, who had been involved in one of the first copyright disputes – in this case over Egenolph's pirating of an edition of Brunfels' Herbarum vivae eicones. Figala (1973) points out that Egenolph specialized in the publication of herbals and whether it was a result of this or his own professional interests, Lonicer… Read More

Frankfurt, Wolfgang Richter, 1598, folio (300 x 200mm), crushed Morocco gilt by Pratt, with Engraved Title-Page, Engraved Arms of Frederick IV, 2 folding engraved maps on 3 sheets and 14 half page engraved plates.
Pigafetta's report of the Kingdom of Congo and of the Surrounding Countries, 1591 was translated into English, Latin (as Regnum Congo), French, Dutch, and German.
In it Pigafetta explains that he was ordered by Pope Sixtus V to transcribe the account of Duarte Lopez, a Portuguese trader who had spent twelve years in the Congo. Lopez's narrative gives a detailed account of his voyage on his uncle's ship, and the history and geography of the kingdom of Congo and its six administrative regions under the rule of its king (named by Lopez 'Don Alvarez'). The account demonstrates the extent of Portuguese exploration across West Africa in the sixteenth century, of which later explorers were unaware

Duarte Lopes travelled within central Africa, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and… Read More

London: Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1773,Contemporary full mottled calf gilt, a very attractive set.
FIRST EDITION, 3 volumes, 52 engraved plates, charts and maps (most folding or double-page, including "A Chart of the Straights of Magellan")
Volume I contains the voyages of Byron, Carteret and Wallis, with the discovery of Tahiti, and volumes II-III contain Hawkesworth's edited account of Lieutenant Cook's voyage (he was only promoted to Captain on his return). Cook's instructions for this first voyage were to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti and to carry on John Byron's survey and examination of the seas between Cape Horn and New Holland, but they did not extend to searching for Terra Australis. He did, however, add more than 5,000 miles of coastline to Admiralty charts for Tahiti, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and New Zealand, which he circumnavigated.
[Beddie, BCJC 648; Hill (2004) 782; Sabin 30934]